UFO ROUNDUP

Volume 3
Number 48
November 30, 1998

Editor: Joseph Trainor

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ISRAEL TRAINS BRIGADE FOR OPERATION ABACUS

Although not a member of NATO, Israel has begun
making military preparations for possible civil unrest
on December 31, 1999 caused by the Year 2000
computer crisis.

Last week Israel became the third nation, after
Canada and UK, to announce military operations
related to the Y2K crisis. The code name for these
Y2K preparations is Operation Abacus.

According to the New York Post, "The Israeli
government has allocated $10 million to counter
possible 'millenium' attacks on Jerusalem's Temple
Mount by messianic Christians or Jewish extremists,
it was disclosed yesterday (i.e. November 23, 1998)."

"Investigators believe some religious fanatics may
try to damage or destroy the area inside Jerusalem's
Old City that houses the Al-Aqsa and Dome of the
Rock mosques and was the site of the destroyed
second Jewish temple."

"Some apocalyptic religious sects believe the
destruction of the mosques will lead to the rebuilding
of the Jewish temple--followed by the second coming
of Christ and the end of the world."

"The (Israeli) government is so concerned that it
approved the hiring of 400 policemen and the
installation of security devices such as closed-
circuit cameras and sensor pads in the area,
officials said."

"Interior Minister Avigdor Kahalani told Israeli
radio yesterday the government had received
information of a possible plot against the Temple
Mount by American religious fanatics."

"An Israeli police source said officials are
concerned because members of a Denver-based
Christian cult had left the U.S. last month, taken
residence in the center of Jerusalem and then
disappeared."

"U.S. law enforcement officials are cooperating
in an investigation." (See the New York Post for
November 24, 1998, "Israel readies $10M to thwart
2000 violence" by Uri Dan, page 22.)

DAYLIGHT DISC STALKS JETLINER IN WEST VIRGINIA

On Wednesday, November 18, 1998, Jerry F.
and his daughter were leaving their home in
Cross Lanes, West Virginia (population 2,130)
when he spotted a strange glimmer in the sky.

"My daughter and I were leaving our home at
approximately 8 a.m.," Jerry reported, "I leave at
this time every day to take her to school, and
then I drive to work. As I entered the garage, I
looked up into the sky to see a jet--a (Boeing) 727--
fly overhead. It was high up enough that it left a
very clear contrail. Suddenly, at a very close
range above the plane, a silver/grey disc appeared.
It flew directly over the top of the plane and was
making a side-to-side swaying motion, almost like
a leaf falling. As it moved, the sun glinted off it,
and it shone very brightly."

"Suddenly, from the east, a jet (delta shape)
came screaming toward the UFO. At that point,
it (the UFO--J.T.) had stopped, and the passenger
plane had already moved away. The UFO glowed
very brightly and then shot straight up and was out
of sight in seconds. By the time my daughter
arrived to see it, the UFO was gone."

"I have an Air Force Intelligence background,"
he added, "and what I saw is nothing I am familiar
with."

Cross Lanes is on Highway 62 approximately
15 miles (24 kilometers) northwest of Charleston,
the state capital. (Email Interview)

TRAPEZOIDAL UFO SEEN IN LAUREL, MISSISSIPPI

On Thursday, November 19, 1998, at 7 p.m.,
student Derek D. "was driving home from college"
on Interstate Highway I-59 in Laurel, Mississippi
when he spotted a strange light in the sky.

"A light in the sky caught my attention to my
right," Derek reported, "and I spotted what first
appeared to be an airplane.crossing my view to
the left. As I went through a slow curve, I watched
the plane, hoping to catch a glimpse of what kind
it was. Strangely, after a few minutes, it appeared
to hover over the local Waffle House. It then began
reversing course. By now I had noticed a series of
bright blue lights on the underside of the craft, which
partially illuminated the underside. Instantly I pulled
my car off to the side to watch."

"What I saw was best described as a trapezoid
shape, with a rectangle poking out of the left (front)
side. It had red and white lights around the perimeter
at odd intervals, and the blue lights in the center of
the underside. It was enormous. I estimated the
size to be comparable to a football field. I don't
believe this was a blimp, but it may have been some
bomber plane configuration that I am not familiar with.
Whatever it was, it was visible and agile but without
the 'lightspeed' blinding acceleration."

Laurel (population 18,827) is on Interstate Highway
I-59 approximately 77 miles (123 kilometers) southeast
of Jackson, the state capital. (Many thanks to
J. Michael of Mississippi UFO Files for this report.)

UFOs ACTIVE ALL AROUND COLORADO'S BLANCA PEAK

On Saturday, November 14, 1998, at 9:15 a.m.,
June Walkley was returning home to Blanca, Colorado
(population 140), "returning from dropping off her
relatives," when she spotted something unusual
over the Smith Reservoir, west of town.

"While driving south on (County) Road 106," Ms.
Walkley "spotted a great big silver V 'hovering over the
Smith Reservoir.' She stopped the car and watched
for around a minute."

She estimated that the UFO "was at least 10 miles
(16 kilometers) away to the east and estimated its size
as a quarter held at arm's length. After watching for a
minute, the object appeared to go straight up and out
of sight."

On Tuesday, November 17, 1998, a realtive of June
Walkley and her husband, Virgil, whom she described
to author/investigator Christopher O'Brien as "a strong
skeptic," said he "witnessed three strange objects
hovering over the San Juan Mountains near Greenie
Ridge. The objects appeared to be reflecting the setting
sun and were 'sitting still.' The the witness 'was amazed'
when the objects disappeared."

On Thursday, November 19, 1998, at 11:15 p.m., "an
ex-career officer of the U.S. Air Force" telephoned O'Brien
"to report 'a multi-colored light yo-yoing up and down--like
on a string.' He summoned two other witnesses, who
"observed the strange light. One witness reported that
the light stayed there for 'almost an hour...before blinking
out.'" (Many thanks to Christopher O'Brien, author of
THE MYSTERIOUS VALLEY) for these reports.)

TWO UFOs SEEN IN SINGAPORE DURING LEONID METEOR STORM

On Wednesday, November 18, 1998, at 3:25 a.m.,
Simon T.C.M. and his sister, Joanna T.A.M., were
standing in an open field on Hill View Avenue in the
island city-nation of Singapore, watching the Leonid
meteor shower.

"I and my sister had been watching the meteor
storm since 2 a.m.," Simon reported, "and I was lucky
enough only to see three very bright and fast needle-
like meteor showers. Then my sister and I saw the
strange meteor. It stayed in the sky for at least
four seconds, and it was shining brightly and seemed
to be dropping slowly downward. It was dark orange
in colour and round in shape. It disappeared before
I could raise my binoculars to get a clear look."

"It is very strange because all the other meteor
showers were under two seconds. And the orange light
glided (east) to where the meteors came from. It also
did not shine brightly like the others and disappeared
into the dark."

Elsewhere in Singapore, witnesses spotted a
luminous gray sphere. Rennie H. reported, "My wife
and son and myself were at East Coast Beach when
at about 3:15 a.m. or so, we witnessed a not-too-bright
dull gray object moving from the left to the right in a
straight line for a long period. The position as we saw
it was...first at the horizon (in the southwest) toward
(Palau) Batam (island) and then the object was
between the top of one's head and the horizon. This
happened after two meteor showers and about five
minutes before a short meteor shower began."
(Email Interviews)

MOTORISTS SPOT UFOs IN DEVON, UK

On Monday, November 16, 1998, at 6:35 a.m.,
"Father and son Paul and Lee Holloway of Rose
Cottage, Bradworthy (Devon) spotted the lights
while driving toward Bideford at 6:35 a.m."

"'I saw something flashing in the sky like an
aeroplane,' Lee said, 'It moved from one direction
to the other. We kept on driving. Then from behind
us there was a massive flash of light."

Lee "compared the flash to lightning, but said it
was several times brighter, lasting five or six seconds.
From just behind the car, the light went directly
over them before disappearing."

"British UFO Research Association regional
investigator Dave Cooper described the event as a
UFO sighting and added, 'Lee is basically on the
classic encounter level of eyewitnesses. It's an
encounter of the second kind--an object--rather
than alien beings.'"

"Pauline Smith witnessed a phenomenon while
driving along the North Devon link road between
South Molton and Tiverton," about 150 miles
(240 kilometers) west of London.

"'I was driving up the link road about 6:15 a.m.
and it blinked for about half an hour. I saw two
objects in the sky about 5,000 feet (1,515 meters)
up,'" Ms. Smith said.

"'They were equidistant from the moon, and I
think they both had reduced flashing lights. They
were both keeping up with each other. They
disappeared and came back. I think I saw one
of them drop vertically, but I couldn't swear ot it,'"
said Ms. Smith, who lives at Sunnyside, Woolsery,
Devon. (See the North Devon Journal for
November 20, 1998, "UFO sightings 'extraordinary,'"
page 1.)

MORE UFO SIGHTINGS ON THE M-1 NEAR SHEFFIELD

On Sunday, November 22, 1998, at 8:05 p.m.,
a member of UK's Phenomenon Research
Association (PRA) was "motoring in a car along
the M-1 (motorway)" when he spotted "a large
black flying triangle hovering, nose down, about
a quarter-mile off the motorway just north of the
M-1/M18 intersecting junction, Junction 22."

"The witness described the FT as huge with
numerous lights and appeared to be made up of a
girder-like structure. He was unable to stop, but
noticed that other drivers had pulled onto the 'hard
shoulder' (breakdown lane in the USA-J.T.) to look
at the FT craft."

"A later report from a driver coming off the M-1
and heading toward the Sheffield area (adjacent to
the M-1/M18 junction) reported a roaring sound in
the sky at about 2005 (8:05 p.m.--J.T.), and he also
noted that he does not believe it was an aircraft
noise." (Many thanks to Oscar Fowler of PRA
and Steve Wilson Sr. for this report.)

UFOs SEEN IN ALICE SPRINGS AND AROUND BRISBANE

On Monday, November 8, 1998, at 2:30 a.m.,
Ms. M. Harvey arose from bed at her home in
Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Australia
"and went outside where she sighted a bright
white light to the north."

Ms. Harvey told Australian ufologist Keith
Douglass that "I saw what appeared to be a
bright silver ball. I watched it for around one
hour. There was no noise. It was nearly over
my head at one stage. Then it went straight up
and disappeared out of sight."

On Saturday, November 14, 1998, at
7:40 p.m., two witnesses at Breakfast Creek
near Hamilton Road in Brisbane saw "two
bright lights side by side, white in colour, the
size of a five-cent piece at arm's length. One
light appeared to cross over the other, and
then both disappeared."

On Wednesday, November 18, 1998, at
3:35 a.m., Anthony Tinnis was driving on the
Bruce Highway in Strathpine, Queensland,
near Brisbane, "going to work, when I saw an
object. Colour, gun-metal gray and flourescent
blue, shaped like a round bowl with a rime
around it."

Tinnis said, "I could see it very clearly, and
it was very low, about a half-mile (2,600 feet--J.T.)
off the ground. It was travelling on a straight line
(west) toward Toowoomba. I saw it for 2.5 to 3
seconds. I watched a bluish gas flame two
meters (6.6 feet) long" emerge from the object.

Tinnis added that he "is a Christian and does
not believe in UFOs." (Many thanks to Diane
Harrison of UFO Network Australasia and Robert
Frola of UFO Investigation Centre, Queensland
for these reports.)

UFO SIGHTED BY A COUPLE IN NIJMEGEN, NETHERLANDS

On Wednesday, November 25, 1998, at 9:45 p.m.,
a couple "was walking the dog" in Nijmegen, a large
city in the Netherlands when they spotted a UFO.

"They were watching the sky for a short time
when they saw what looked like a star getting
brighter and brighter. The light was bluish-white
in colour." The couple described the UFO as
"somewhat eye-shaped" or elliptical in structure.

"It then moved energetically up and down for a
short time before it shot off in the night once again."
The object hovered over the southwest section of
Nijmegen, and the condition of the sky was "cloudy
but with a lot of clear spots."

Nijmegen is on the river Rhine approximately
140 kilometers (84 miles) southeast of Amsterdam.
The city was the site of a ferocious World War II
battle back in September 1944. (Many thanks to
Andy Denne of A.U.R.A. for this report.)

UFO SQUADRON SIGHTED NEAR RAVENNA, ITALY

On Wednesday, November 18, 1998, several
residents of Conselice, a town near Ravenna, an
Italian city on the Adriatic Sea, climbed a local
hill to watch the Leonid meteor shower.

Ravenna is 165 kilometers (103 miles)
north of Rome.

Around 9:30 p.m., "three youths who were
waiting to see the Leonid meteor shower observed
a group of spheres that travelled from north to south.
The spheres employed several minutes to traverse
the vault of sky." (See the Italian newspaper
Corriere di Ravenna for November 21, 1998. Grazie
a Mirko Dalmonte e Edoardo Russo di Centro
Italiano di Studi Ufologici, CISU, per questo rapporto.)

LUMINOUS UFO SPOTTED IN SLOVENIA

On Thursday, October 29, 1998, at 7:30 a.m.,
Radio Slovenija VAL 202 (98.9 FM) reported a
UFO sighting at Ljubljanska Barje, a marshland
not far from Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia.

According to the commentator, a "strange
glowing object" was seen hovering over the
marshes. "The commentator said the station had
dispatched a news crew to film the object. The
object was reported to have been silver and shone
very brightly."

On Sunday, November 1, 1998, two men in
the same area "saw a bright ball of fire disappearing
behind a hill. They say that they saw it for only a
glimpse but it was almost twice the size of the
moon."

Slovenia is a small nation in the Balkans,
east of Italy and south of Austria. (Many thanks
to Guiliano Marinkovic for this news story.)

WEIRD BROWN GOOP FALLS ON TWO MICHIGAN HOMES

In the second strange incident of its kind this
year, weird brown goop fell from the sky and
splattered two homes in Westland, Michigan
(population 84,724), a suburb just west of Detroit.

The first "goop fall" took place near York,
Pennsylvania early last spring.

"One minute Ernestine Stange's garage and
driveway were white. The next, they were covered
with thousands of textured brown droppings."

"Based on the number, the color of the droppings
and the fact that they were on the rooftop, Stange
assumed the droppings that fell last Tuesday
(November 16, 1998) in Westland had been feces
dumped from a plane."

"She made dozens of phone calls--to (Detroit
Metro) airport officials, county health officials and
the Michigan Department of Agriculture. On
Thursday (November 18), an environmental
specialist took samples."

"The verdict after tests--it's not feces, but
beyond that, it remains a mystery."

"Metro Airport spokesman Leon Singer said,
'I can't tell you what it is. But I can tell you what
it wasn't, and it wasn't human waste.'"

"'I'm worried about getting the mess cleaned
up,' Stange said Monday (November 22), as she
looked out her sliding glass door at her filthy garage.
'We've had several jokes about it. 'I've heard about
it hitting the fan, but the garage?' 'You talk about
sitting in a pile of it.' That kind of thing. But I'm
really afraid of disease and everything else. I'm
worried about my relatives and what might be in that
stuff. I guess if it wasn't my house, I'd also find it
funny.'"

"Stange's neighbor Mariusz Boguszewski said
he doesn't think the residue is funny, either."

"'I was just going to let it go as an angry flock of
birds, but my neighbor wants to investigate it. And
they've got my curiosity up," he said Monday before
the tests were completed."

"Stange said she doesn't think birds could make
such a mess. 'They would've have to have had a
convention right above my house and have everyone
go at once.'"

Westland is on Ford Road about 18 miles
(29 kilometers) west of Detroit. (See the newspaper
Detroit Free Press for November 24, 1998, "From a
bird? A plane? Mystery muck rains on roofs" by
Beth Kronel. Many thanks to Gerry Lovell of Far
Shores for forwarding the newspaper article.)

(Editor's Comment: Another fall of brown goop!
Were he alive at this hour, no doubt Charles Fort
would be turning cartwheels of sheer joy.)

from the UFO Files...

1909: LUMINOUS RED UFO SEEN BY HUNDREDS IN MASSACHUSETTS

During the next month, UFO Roundup will be
offering several of the UFO sightings reported in
local New England newspapers during the
memorable "airship" flap of 1909.

To briefly recap, after UFOs were sighted
hovering over the cities of Marlboro and Worcester,
Massachusetts December 16, 1909, a local
businessman, Wallace J. Tillinghast, stepped
forward and claimed to have invented "a new
aeroplane" in secret and flown to New York
City on several occasions.

Yet the UFOs kept up their nightly flights,
appearing on evenings when Tillinghast was
seen at his Worcester home or while giving
interviews to the Boston newspapers. Here
is one such incident:

On December 22, 1909, "while the Worcester
UFO was making its celebrated flight to Spencer
and Marlboro and back, another 'mystery light'
was active up north in the Montachusett region,
putting on a show for the inhabitants of
Leominster."

"A red light was spotted over Monument
Square in downtown Leominster by several
witnesses, including a reporter for the
Leominster Enterprise. This object was
stationary."

"Elsewhere in town, 'George Pratt,
employed by the Upham Clothing Store, says
that as he alighted from a (trolley) car at
Nelson Street Wednesday night on his way
to supper, he saw the 'red light' but would not
say that it was a flying ship, only that it
appeared 'six times as large as a star.' He
said he went to George A. Allen's to tell him
about it.'"

"'Mr. Allen was not at home, but Pratt says
Mrs. Allen came out and she too saw the
peculiar light. Pratt walked home and told his
father, the latter going to the top of Nelson
Street Hill where he says he was able to pick
out the luminous orb from among the stars.
Mr. Pratt says the light went (south) in the
direction of Princeton (Mass.)." (See the
Leominster, Mass. Enterprise for December
23, 1909. See also The New England Airship
Invasion of 1909 by Joseph Trainor, FORTEAN
STUDIES, Volume 1, John Brown Publishing Ltd.,
1994, page 64.)

Today is the birthday of American novelist
and humorist Samuel Langhorne Clemens,
better known as Mark Twain. Clemens was
born November 30, 1835, during a flyby of
Halley's Comet. He passed away in Hartford,
Connecticut on April 21, 1910, during the
comet's return appearance. Comets held a
strange fascination for Clemens. One of his
last short stories, "Captain Stormfield's Trip to
Heaven," deals with both comets and "blue-
skinned aliens." Strangely enough, this year's
anniversary of Clemens's birth sees a new
comet at magnitude 8 crossing the sky.

Join us next week for more saucer news from
around the planet, brought to you by "the paper
that goes home--UFO Roundup." See you then.

UFO ROUNDUP: Copyright 1998 by Masinaigan
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